José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, a prominent figure in the liberation and civil rights movement, founder of the Young Lords in Chicago, and co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition, has passed away. He was 76 years old.
Her sister, Daisy Rodríguez, said in a Facebook post that she died on Friday morning. The cause of death was not revealed.
In the 1960s, Jiménez founded the Young Lords as a street gang to counteract the growing hostility towards the Puerto Rican community in Lincoln Park, at that time one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. In 1968, the group evolved into a human rights organization inspired by the Black Panther Party, according to the Library of Congress archives.
“Cha Cha became one of the most important figures in the liberation and civil rights movements,” her family said in a statement on social media. “She leaves behind a profound legacy of revolutionary spirit, a vision of Puerto Rican self-determination, and a commitment to justice for the people.”
The Young Lords challenged institutional racism and police brutality, advocating for healthcare, education, and affordable housing. They also established free breakfast, education, healthcare programs, and community spaces to organize and demand change.
According to Jiménez’s obituary published in Pietryka Funeral Home, many young people who joined the Young Lords were inspired by his passion, leadership, and understanding of what it meant to fight for the people. The Young Lords of Chicago became the national headquarters, and chapters were formed in New York, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee.
In 1969, Jiménez joined forces with Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party and William “Preacherman” Fesperman of the Young Patriots Organization to form the Rainbow Coalition, a multiracial working-class movement that brought together poor blacks, Latinos, and whites from the Appalachian region and later resulted in a radical change in politics in the American Midwest.
The PBS documentary “The First Rainbow Coalition” shows how members of the Black Panther Party organized radical Puerto Ricans and white southerners waving Confederate flags to help fight poverty and discrimination. The alliance surprised some allies and scared the police and the FBI, who feared that the coalition would disrupt the social order.
Filmmaker Ray Santisteban said that without Jiménez’s trust, help, and commitment, the documentary would have never happened.
“Since the first time I met him in 1992 until the last time I saw him, he was solely focused on working to uplift and empower the Puerto Rican community and all poor people around the world,” Santisteban said on Facebook.
Born on August 8, 1940 in the San Salvador neighborhood, Caguas, Puerto Rico, Jiménez later grew up on the north side of Chicago in La Clark, one of the city’s first Puerto Rican neighborhoods.
Jiménez channeled his dream of change towards political power. In 1974, he became the first Latino to announce his candidacy for alderman in Chicago, opposing gentrification plans, according to his obituary. His candidacy helped change the city’s political landscape and asserted Puerto Rican and Latino power. In 1983, Jiménez helped form the first Latino coalition that helped Harold Washington become Chicago’s first black mayor.
After the organization ceased its activities in the late 1970s, Jiménez focused his energy on preserving the history of the Young Lords. In 1995, Jiménez collaborated with the Latino Research Center at DePaul University to create the Lincoln Park Project, a vast archive of oral history of the Young Lords.
In 2023, Jiménez was honored by the Latin Research Center at DePaul with the prestigious Public Intellectual Award. In 2024, a historical marker was placed on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus to honor the presence and legacy of the Young Lords in the city.
A public funeral for Jiménez will be held on Thursday in Chicago, according to Pietryka Funeral Home.
Jiménez is survived by five children and three sisters.